Civilnet
Claire Medina
A variety of locals and internationals, government officials and youth activists gathered on Saturday, January 30 for Yerevan’s second TEDxSalon event. As introduced by host Bradley Busetto, the theme ‘Forum Magnum’ referenced the Ancient Roman public space where government buildings were located, serving as a marketplace of ideas, the “heart and brains, the center of the ancient world.” How, he questioned, can we “diminish the space between government and citizen?”
The first talk was presented by Claire Medina, Deputy Resident Representative of the UNDP in Armenia, who discussed the role of technology in the evolving relationship between government and citizens.
Not only is there now the possibility for governments to be more transparent and open, but innovation in governance and crowdsourcing has facilitated communication with citizens about their needs. She also emphasized that until recently, the most that average citizens could reasonably hope to influence their polities was through the voting process. Now, their role has moved from that of listening to that of talking and the responsibility to act.
Technology has also placed more importance on ideas themselves, as opposed to where the ideas are coming from – for example, an unofficial blogger may have more influence than someone working for an elite institution.
Medina did note that “technology may be part of the story, but not the whole story,” since not everyone has internet access, and not all those who do may contribute. Still, her essential point remains: with technology comes responsibility.
Next up was Armen Harutyunyan, Armenia’s Deputy Minister of Agriculture. The main takeaway from his talk was on the concept of human capital. Though generally defined as investment in education and skill-building to improve production, Harutyunyan expanded that idea to also account for the values of talent, imagination, and creativity. He especially stressed the importance of investing in quality education as the most impactful aspect of human capital for developing countries, while still acknowledging the need to address inequality in developed countries.
The third speaker was Siranush Sahakyan, Chairperson of the Commission on Ethics of High-Ranking Officials of Armenia. She spoke about the meaning of the word ‘ethics,’ about the meaning of character as the courage to turn values into action, and doing so repetitively as a habit. In the end, she developed her own definition: “ethics is the art of mastering values.”
The final speaker was Sergey Sargysyan, co-founder, co-host and co-writer of ArmComedy, Armenia’s first political satire show – a CivilNet web series in its younger days. After sharing a personal anecdote from a US Embassy 4th of July party when he confronted Yerevan’s mayor about misuse of the Town Hall budget spent on cognac, he asked why these dialogues cannot happen more often. Sargysyan wrapped up the talks by expressing his hope for the day that citizens will notice public officials in the street and want to hug them.
Audience member learning how to play the violin with Sistema Armenia
The audience then enjoyed a performance by the voluntary youth string orchestra from Sistema Armenia, an organization “founded on the idea of using orchestra as a metaphor for community.” They spoke about commitment to something larger than oneself, the development of expertise through practice, and even gave a 3-minute violin lesson to an audience member.
Finally, the audience heard from Kristine Sargysyan, a teacher at TUMO who is responsible for organizing Armenia’s TED events. She encouraged people to be open to cooperating with the “right” public officials and gave assurance that there were indeed some talented ones who deserve people's’ support.
TEDxSalon events are smaller than the usual TEDx events, of which there have been several in Yerevan. This particular event was co-organized with the UNDP with the support of the European Union and partner venue AGBU. The talks from this past event should be available online shortly.
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